Ariz. officers to wear TASER Axon Flex cameras

Mesa police plan to start using 50 cameras in October after training sessions

Arizona Capital Times

MESA, Ariz. — Mesa police officers will soon start using tiny cameras that are mounted on eyeglasses, hats or shirts and make audio and video recordings of everything from routine calls to life-or-death situations.

The Arizona Republic reports that police agencies nationwide view the recordings as a new layer of evidence that could be shown to juries during criminal trials or used to prove or disprove complaints about police conduct.

Because the original tape cannot be altered, police say the Axon Flex cameras may counter videos taken with smartphones that sometimes capture only a small portion of an incident and convey a distorted view of what happened. Mesa plans to start using 50 cameras in October after training sessions. Lake Havasu City police have 20, and four other Arizona police agencies are testing them.

Default mounting for the Axon Flex is on a pair of Oakley Flak Jacket wraparound eyeglasses (Image Courtesy of TASER International)

The cameras cost about $950 each, plus charges for digital storage in a data bank, according to the system’s maker, Taser International.